Rosal Colon, Broadway Actress

by Andrew Piccone

Tell me about your job.

I come from a pretty interesting theater background — my parents started Pregones Theater which is one of the foremost Latino theater companies in New York. I was born into that, and so I became a very active member in it, we’re now in our 30th year. I studied drama at a performing arts high school and after that decided to pursue the craft a little more seriously and went to SUNY Purchase for their acting conservatory. I got out and started auditioning, working a lot with Pregones, doing readings here and there. I eventually booked a great Broadway job with “A Free Man of Color” at Lincoln Center. That was in September of last year. I was cast in the original production at the Public Theater, but it was dropped, and then it got picked up again, we did a workshop of it about a year and a half ago, and it got picked up for the Lincoln Center. It was a wonderful experience, getting to work with Jeffrey Wright, Justina Machado, Paul Dano, Mos Def and some really great people, and a wonderful playwright and a wonderful director. It was a really wonderful learning experience and a nice catapult into the business.

How have things changed for you since being on Broadway?

A Broadway credit definitely gives you a little more edge. In terms of confidence; I think confidence is the biggest thing for any actor whether you’ve done absolutely nothing or a thousand things. As long as you are really confident, you’re set, and this thing has given me an enormous amount of confidence. I’m going to be doing a one-woman show, which I just found out about today, that was workshopped at the LAByrinth Theater at the Public. Another theater company just picked it up to continue working on it at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and hopefully it will get picked up again after that. I’m going to be doing a series of play readings for the Public theater in March, so I’ve got some things on the horizon. I’m 24, I graduated in 2008. For some that’s a quick rise, for some that’s a while, but I feel like it’s all happening at a really good pace because I’m ready for whatever that is coming to me.

What are the struggles of being a Latina actress?

I think it’s just, sort of, that’s a pretty big question. We’re really often pigeonholed. That has been kind of struggle for me, finding my way around that. Knowing that stereotypes exist for a reason and granted I can easily go that route, I was raised the way I was raised and I don’t necessarily fit in to that stereotype. I think my talent often subverts the expectation of what my look gives off and I think that’s a common struggle for a lot of Latina actors who are raised here but are rooted in another place.

Are you able to live completely off theater or do you still find yourself in the occasional day job?

I was able to save a lot of money from the salary from the show — I still have a lot saved. I’m kind of fortunate that unemployment has become my friend right now. Actors can typically earn, maybe in an ensemble in a musical, $1500 a week. I wasn’t doing a musical, I was doing a straight play, but that was my salary. Depending on if you’re the lead you might be doing $2000 a week. It’s not a bad chunk of change.

Who are some of your heroes in the acting world?

I adore Annette Benning, I think that she is so fabulous. I admire her tenacity and her choices, I think that she is just such an intelligent woman. She doesn’t make concessions. I think her work is really smart, and I look up to it. And just the great dames: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, I think they’re fabulous. Benicio Del Toro is wonderful, Javier Bardem, Anna Ortiz is great. Justina Machado is fabulous, I really admire her work and I look up to her tremendously. I got to work with her and I got to see firsthand what a wonderful lady she is.

What do you think of the state of Broadway in 2011?

I think it’s really commercially driven, kind of Disney-fied. It’s wonderful to see such brave attempts as “A Free Man of Color” and other productions like that. They’re really strayed from that mainstream while trying to strike a commercial success. I hope that becomes sort of the main theme in Broadway, but I think it will take a while. A lot of people are embarrassed about “Spider Man,” but more power to the actors in that production who are doing it. I don’t know, it’s kind of a disappointment for those of us who are looking for work, and something like that is getting so much money and attention and not proving to be anything other than an embarrassment. I think it would be really amazing if a family of four wanted to see a play or a musical of some substance that made them think. Entertainment like that is necessary, plays like “Spider Man,” “Mary Poppins,” “Lion King” are necessary, but I think there needs to be a balance.

What was your most starstruck moment?

Meeting Rosie Perez. I love her, I often get compared to her even though I don’t think we’re necessarily similar. We look alike, or so I hear. Meeting her I was complete jello, I didn’t know what to say. It was in a workshop we did for “A Free Man of Color.” I did talk to her and she’s absolutely wonderful. I felt like I was meeting my boyfriend or something. No one has ever been starstruck meeting me, yet. I’m sure it will happen though.

Andrew Piccone is a photographer in New York.